Lady’s Bedstraw: Midsummer in Romania
The celebration of Sanzeine, like other midsummer festivities in Eastern Europe, puts the focus where it should be—on beautiful young women and flowers. Calling all Romanian virgins! Actually, we’re a mite bit tardy. Sorry. The Sanzeine celebration was a few nights ago. This old pagan…
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Persephone’s Flower
Mysterious flames, pomegranate blooms signal the end of spring and, in our part of the world, an oncoming season in hell. The myth of Persephone gets whitewashed for children. We were taught that a lovely maiden out gathering flowers one day suddenly was swallowed down…
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Predicting Sakura
Two Japanese weather services vie to specify when the cherry blossoms will open. The Japanese sense of natural beauty (as Masashi Yamaguchi recently discussed right here) is keen and refined. Its most famous manifestation comes each spring with Hanami, the viewing of cherry blossoms across…
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Raise The Majstang
At the feast of St. John the Baptist, June 24, up goes the Swedish “maypole,” a high sign to both Christians and pagans. After many months of darkness Midsummer is a pile-on holiday in Scandinavia. In light-deprived lands like Sweden, Finland, and Norway, it’s a…
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